Waste Heat Recovery

Prof. Mohnish Borker

Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Padre Conceição College of Engineering, Verna-Goa
• Waste heat is heat, which is generated in a process by way of fuel combustion or
chemical reaction, and then “dumped” into the environment even though it could
still be reused for some useful and economic purpose.

• The essential quality of heat is not the amount but rather its “value”.

• The strategy of how to recover this heat depends in part on the temperature of the
waste heat gases and the economics involved.

• Large quantity of hot flue gases is generated from Boilers, Kilns, Ovens and
Furnaces. If some of this waste heat could be recovered, a considerable amount of
primary fuel could be saved.
Heat Losses-QUALITY

• Depending upon the type of process, waste heat can be rejected at virtually any
temperature from that of chilled cooling water to high temperature waste gases
from an industrial furnace or kiln.
• Usually higher the temperature, higher the quality and more cost effective is the
heat recovery.
• Typical examples of use would be preheating of combustion air, space heating, or
pre-heating boiler feed water or process water.
• With high temperature heat recovery, a cascade system of waste heat recovery
may be practiced to ensure that the maximum amount of heat is recovered at the
highest potential.
Heat Losses-QUANTITY
• In any heat recovery situation it is essential to know the amount of heat recoverable and
also how it can be used.
• An example of the availability of waste heat is given below:

Heat recovery from heat treatment furnace

• In a heat treatment furnace, the exhaust gases are leaving the furnace at 900 °C at the rate
of 2100 m3/hour. The total heat recoverable at 180oC final exhaust can be calculated as

𝑄 = 𝑉 × 𝜌 × 𝑐𝑃 × ∆𝑇
Where,
Q is the heat content in kCal
V is the flow rate of the substance in m3/hr
ρ is density of the flue gas in kg/m3
cP is the specific heat of the substance in kCal/kg °C
ΔT is the temperature difference in °C
Classification of WHR sources
• High Temperature Heat Recovery: Waste gases from industrial process
equipment in high temperature range. They result from direct fuel fired
processes.

• Medium Temperature Heat Recovery: Waste gases from process equipment in

the medium temperature range. Most of the waste heat in this temperature range
comes from the exhaust of directly fired process units.

• Low Temperature Heat Recovery: In this range it is usually not practical to

extract work from the source, though steam production may not be completely
excluded if there is a need for low-pressure steam. Low temperature waste heat
may be useful in a supplementary way for preheating purposes.
Sr. No Source
1 Heat in flue gases.
2 Heat in vapour streams.
3 Convective and radiant heat lost from
exterior of equipment.
4 Heat losses in cooling water.
5 Heat losses in providing chilled water or in
the disposal of chilled water
6 Heat stored in products leaving the process
7 Heat in gaseous and liquid effluents leaving
process.
Quality
The higher the temperature, the greater the
potential value for heat recovery
As above but when condensed, latent heat also
recoverable.
Low grade – if collected may be used for space
heating or air preheats.
Low grade – useful gains if heat is exchanged with
incoming fresh water .
a) High grade if it can be utilized to reduce
demand for refrigeration.
b) Low grade if refrigeration unit used as a form of
heat pump.
Quality depends upon temperature.
Poor if heavily contaminated and thus requiring
alloy heat exchanger.
Benefits of WHR
Direct Benefits:
• Recovery of waste heat has a direct effect on the efficiency of the process. This is reflected
by reduction in the utility consumption & costs, and process cost.

Indirect Benefits:
a) Reduction in pollution: A number of toxic combustible wastes such as carbon
monoxide gas, carbon black off gases, oil sludge, Acrylonitrile and other plastic
chemicals etc, releasing to atmosphere if/when burnt in the incinerators serves dual
purpose
b) Reduction in equipment sizes: Waste heat recovery reduces the fuel consumption,
which leads to reduction in the flue gas produced. This results in reduction in
equipment sizes of all flue gas handling equipments such as fans, stacks, ducts,
burners, etc.
c) Reduction in auxiliary energy consumption: Reduction in equipment sizes gives
additional benefits in the form of reduction in auxiliary energy consumption like
electricity for fans, pumps etc.
Development of WHR system

Understanding the process

• Understanding the process is essential for development of Waste Heat Recovery system.
• This can be accomplished by reviewing the process flow sheets, layout diagrams, piping
isometrics, electrical and instrumentation cable ducting etc. Detail review of these
documents will help in identifying:
a) Sources and uses of waste heat
b) Upset conditions occurring in the plant due to heat recovery
c) Availability of space
d) Any other constraint, such as dew point occurring in an equipments etc.
• After identifying source of waste heat and the possible use of it, the next step is to select
suitable heat recovery system and equipments to recover and utilize the same.
Economic Evaluation of Waste Heat Recovery System
• It is necessary to evaluate the selected waste heat recovery system on the basis of
financial analysis such as investment, depreciation, payback period, rate of return
etc.
• In addition the advice of experienced consultants and suppliers must be obtained
for rational decision.
• Next section gives a brief description of common heat recovery devices available
commercially and its typical industrial applications.
Commercial WHR devices
Recuperators:
• In a recuperator, heat exchange takes place
between the flue gases and the air through
metallic or ceramic walls.
• Duct or tubes carry the air for combustion to be
pre-heated, the other side contains the waste
heat stream.
Metallic Radiation Recuperator
• The simplest configuration for a recuperator is
the metallic radiation recuperator, which
consists of two concentric lengths of metal
tubing.
• The inner tube carries the hot exhaust gases
while the external annulus carries the
combustion air from the atmosphere to the air
inlets of the furnace burners.
• The hot gases are cooled by the incoming
combustion air which now carries additional
energy into the combustion chamber.
Convective Recuperator
• A second common configuration for
recuperators is called the tube type or
convective recuperator
• The hot gases are carried through a number of
parallel small diameter tubes, while the
incoming air to be heated enters a shell
surrounding the tubes and passes over the hot
tubes one or more times in a direction normal to
their axes.
• If the tubes are baffled to allow the gas to pass
over them twice, the heat exchanger is termed a
two-pass recuperator; if two baffles are used, a
three-pass recuperator, etc.
Radiation/Convective Hybrid Recuperator
• For maximum effectiveness of heat transfer,
combinations of radiation and convective designs
are used, with the high-temperature radiation
recuperator being first followed by convection
type.
• These are more expensive than simple metallic
radiation recuperators, but are less bulky.
Regenerator
• The Regeneration which is preferable for
large capacities has been very widely used in
glass and steel melting furnaces.
• Important relations exist between the size of
the regenerator, time between reversals,
thickness of brick, conductivity of brick and
heat storage ratio of the brick.
• In a regenerator, the time between the
reversals is an important aspect.
• Long periods would mean higher thermal
storage and hence higher cost.
Case Example (Regenerators):
• A rotary heat regenerator was installed on a two colour printing press to recover some of
the heat, which had been previously dissipated to the atmosphere, and used for drying
stage of the process.
• The outlet exhaust temperature before heat recovery was often in excess of 100°C.
• After heat recovery the temperature was 35°C.
• Percentage heat recovery was 55% and payback on the investment was estimated to be
about 18 months.
• Cross contamination of the fresh air from the solvent in the exhaust gases was at a very
acceptable level.
Heat Wheels
• A heat wheel is finding increasing
applications in low to medium temperature
waste heat recovery systems.
• It is a sizable porous disk, fabricated with
material having a fairly high heat capacity,
which rotates between two side-by-side
ducts: one a cold gas duct, the other a hot gas
duct.
• The axis of the disk is located parallel to, and
on the partition between, the two ducts.
• As the disk slowly rotates, sensible heat
(moisture that contains latent heat) is
transferred to the disk by the hot air and, as
the disk rotates, from the disk to the cold air.
Case Example (Heat Wheels):
• A ceramic firm installed a heat wheel on the preheating zone of a tunnel kiln
where 7500 m3/hour of hot gas at 300°C was being rejected to the atmosphere.
• The result was that the flue gas temperature was reduced to 150°C and the fresh
air drawn from the top of the kiln was preheated to 155°C.
• The burner previously used for providing the preheated air was no longer
required. The capital cost of the equipment was recovered in less than 12 months.
Heat Pipe
• A heat pipe can transfer up to 100 times more
thermal energy than copper, the best known
conductor.
• In other words, heat pipe is a thermal energy
absorbing and transferring system and have no
moving parts and hence require minimum
maintenance.
• The Heat Pipe comprises of three elements - a
sealed container, a capillary wick structure and a
working fluid.
• The capillary wick structure is integrally fabricated
into the interior surface of the container tube and
sealed under vacuum.
Case Example (Heat Pipe):
Savings in Hospital Cooling Systems
Volume 140 m3/min
Exhaust Recovered heat 28225 kCal/hr
Plant capacity reduction 9.33 Tons of Refrigeration
Electricity cost (operation) Rs. 268/Million kCal (based on 0.8 kW/TR)
Plant capacity reduction cost (Capital) Rs.12,000/TR
Capital cost savings Rs. 1,12,000/-
Payback period 16570 hours
Economiser
• In case of boiler system, economizer
can be provided to utilize the flue gas
heat for preheating the boiler feed
water.
• On the other hand, in an air pre-heater,
the waste heat is used to heat
combustion air.
• In both the cases, there is a
corresponding reduction in the fuel
requirements of the boiler.
Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger
• When the medium containing waste heat is
a liquid or a vapor which heats another
liquid, then the shell and tube heat
exchanger must be used since both paths
must be sealed to contain the pressures of
their respective fluids.
• The shell contains the tube bundle, and
usually internal baffles, to direct the fluid in
the shell over the tubes in multiple passes.
• The shell is inherently weaker than the
tubes so that the higher-pressure fluid is
circulated in the tubes while the lower
pressure fluid flows through the shell.
Thermocompressor
• In many cases, very low pressure steam are reused
as water after condensation for lack of any better
option of reuse.
• In many cases it becomes feasible to compress
this low pressure steam by very high pressure
steam and reuse it as a medium pressure steam.
• The major energy in steam, is in its latent heat
value and thus thermocompressing would give a
large improvement in waste heat recovery.
• The thermocompressor is a simple equipment
with a nozzle where HP steam is accelerated into
a high velocity fluid. This entrains the LP steam
by momentum transfer and then recompresses in
a divergent venturi.
Waste Heat Boilers
• Waste heat boilers are ordinarily water tube
boilers in which the hot exhaust gases from gas
turbines, incinerators, etc., pass over a number
of parallel tubes containing water.
• The water is vaporized in the tubes and
collected in a steam drum from which it is
drawn off for use as heating or processing
steam.
• Because the exhaust gases are usually in the
medium temperature range and in order to
conserve space, a more compact boiler can be
produced if the water tubes are finned in order
to increase the effective heat transfer area on the
gas side.
Case Example (Waste Heat Boilers):
• Gases leaving a carbon black plant rich in carbon monoxide which are vented to the atmosphere.
• Equipment Suggested: Carbon monoxide incinerator along with waste heat boiler and steam
turbine
• Estimated equipment cost: Rs.350 Lakhs
• New boiler efficiency: 80%
• Savings by way of power generated: ~Rs.160 Lakhs /annum
• Indirect benefits: Reduction in pollution levels
Direct Contact Heat Exchanger
• Low pressure steam may also be used to preheat
the feed water or some other fluid where
miscibility is acceptable.
• This principle is used in Direct Contact Heat
Exchanger and finds wide use in a steam
generating station.
• They essentially consists of a number of trays
mounted one over the other or packed beds.
• Steam is supplied below the packing while the
cold water is sprayed at the top.
• The steam is completely condensed in the
incoming water thereby heating it.